Dejan Savic

Conductor

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Bio

DEJAN SAVIC (1957), the outstanding Serbian conductor, is born in Belgrade in the family of musicians.
He graduated conducting with distinction at the Academy of Music in Belgrade and received his Masters Degree at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. On a specialization cours, Mr. Savic was working with Mo Berislav Klobucar.
Artistic Director of the oldest Jewish Choral Society "The Baruh Brothers", founded in 1879, he also conducted a number of prominent Yugoslav mixed, male and female choral groups, winning the international prizes at the different contests (Gorizia and Pescara, Italy) and touring with them USSR, Spain, Austria, Cyprus, Israel, Switzerland, Netherlands, Ireland, Greece, making also recordings both for Radio and TV.
During the period 1989-93 D. Savic was the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Nis Symphony Orchestra, where he made a large number of outstanding concert evenings, tours (Skopje, Beograd) and recordings with world known artists such as Ludmil Angelov, Mihai Ungureanu, Aleksandar Sandorov, piano, Ksenija Jankovic, cello, Radmila Bakocevic, soprano, Jovan Kolundzija, Sreten Krstic and Stefan Milenkovic, violin etc. Since 1993 he is the Principal Conductor of the Belgrade Opera and Ballet Company, where some of the most famous artists performed with him, i.e. Elena Obrastzova, Makvala Kasrashvili, Agnes Baltsa, Dimitra Theodossiou, Bruna Baglioni, Catleen McCalla, Marie – Ange Todorovich, Leandra Overmann, Olivera Miljakovic, Ingeboerg Kosmo, Micaela Carosi, Mauro Agostini, Fabio Armiliato, Pierro Giuliacci, Carlo Guelfi, Valeria Esposito, Henrik Engelsviken, Elena Gorbach, Zeljko Lučić, Zoran Todorović, Boris Trajanov, Milena Kitić a.o. His guest - appearances in Serbian opera houses include The Opera and Ballet of the Serbian National Theater in Novi Sad as well as the renewal of the operatic scene in Nis in 1996, after almost 30 years.
From 2001 – 2004 mr Savic is appearing as the General Manager of the Beograd Opera and Ballet Company. In 2005 he has been appointed the Superintendant of the National Theater Beograd, being the first musician on the head of this prestigious national institute of culture in its 137 years long history, then in 2007 he took the position of the Opera General Manager, after which he returned to the Superintendant position in 2012.
Conducting all major Yugoslav symphony orchestras Mr Savic also toured Greece (State Symphony Orchestras of Athens and Thessaloniki, the ERT Symphony Orchestra and Mixed Choir), Bulgaria (the Bulgarian National Symphony Orchestra, also concert within the Athens-Belgrade-Sofia concert serie and the Burgas Philharmonic Orchestra), Romania (Philharmonic orchestras and Choirs of Craiova and Iasi), Russia (the Tomsk State Symphony Orchestra), USA (the Bloomingdale Symphony Orchestra of New York), appearing with him the soloists such as Anatolij Krstev, cello, Mineo Hayashi, cello, Kjell Baekkelund, piano, Eliso Virsaladze, piano, Anna Verholantseva, harp, a.o.
D. Savic was appointed Guest Conductor to the ERT Symphony Orchestra in Athens for four seasons. Conducting the State Symphony Orchestra of Athens in 1991. he is so far the only Serbian conductor appearing in its largest and most important concert hall "Megaron moussikis". The next appointment with this leading Greek orchestral ensemble was another success in the same hall (soloist Martha Arapi, soprano) in November 2007.
Since 1993-95 Mr. Savic was a present Artistic director of the famous "Pro Musica" chamber ensemble, the oldest one in Yugoslavia, with whom he also made a vaste number of recordings, tours and concert appearings. In 1994, the concert season of this ensemble brought to Beograd for the soloists artists such as Alirio Diaz, guitar, Stojka Milanova, violin, Vladimir Krainev, piano, and Christina Anghelescu, violin. In 1998 he became the Artistic Director of the "Pro classica" Chamber Orchestra.
In National D.G.O.S. Opera in Dublin, Ireland, in 1995 D. Savic conducted 5 performances of "Il Trovatore" by Verdi, staged by Inge Levant and including among the soloists Tatyana Zakharchouk, soprano, Mark Rucker, baritone and Scott Flaherty, tenor, unanimously estimated by the critics as the best performances in the last years.
The 1996 summer tour in Italy with the Rousse Philharmonia, Bulgaria, included two successful appearances on Festivals in Sta Margherita Ligure and Reggio Emilia, with the soloists Jasna Maksimovic and Luigi Alberto Bianchi, violin.
In National Opera of Greece, Athens, Mr. Savic conducted seasons opening and 4 performances of "Barbiere di Sevilla" by Rossini, during May 1997, as well as 4 performances of "Die Fledermaus" by Strauss, February 1999. Those performances, highest ranked by the audience and music experts, were considered the best in the season.
The Norwegian debut of Mr Savic in June 1998 was presented with the remarcable closing concert of the season 1997-98 with the Symphony Orchestra of The Royal Opera, Oslo. This programme included a premiere of Grieg-Evju's Second piano concerto B minor with the soloist Geir Henning Braaten, piano and Ragnhild Heiland Sorensen, soprano, performing Grieg's vocal music.
In July '98, The Beograd National Theater Symphony Orchestra under the batton of its Principal conductor Mr Savic had its first appearance on Patras International Festival, Greece, having an exceptional performance with soprano Vassiliki Papantoniou as the soloist.
Another two Greek prestigeous festival "Prespes" and "Olympia" hosted Mr Savic together with Radio Television of Serbia Choir and Orchestra and Beograd Philharmonia in summer '99, where, among other, they performed with Mikis Theodorakis his music.
After a democratic changes in Yugoslavia, the first ensembles to be hosted abroad where the RTS SO and Choir, performing Rossini's Piccola Messa Sollenela with the soloists from Greece and former Yugoslav republics, under the batton of mr Savic in Thessaloniki, October 2000. This event named Culture & Balkans was supported by the Stability Pact and the Greek Ministry of the Foreign Affairs.
During the autumn/winter 2000, mr Savic was hosted by the Opera National du Rhin, Strasbourg, France, where he conducted this season's opening - ten performances of Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel (Delphine Galou) in the Opera Houses of Muhouse, Colmar, Strasbourg and Besancon.
In 2001 mr Savic performed on prestigeous Athens International Summer Festival, conducting the Beograd National Theater Symphony Orchestra with soprano Elleni Kelessidi as the soloist, than in Bucharest, Romania, with the National Radio Chamber Orchestra, opening the season and recording with Dana Borsan, piano soloist, finaly with Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra in new Megaron Musikis hall. In the same period, the Beograd National Theater Opera Company appeared in the Chamber Opera of Thessaloniki, Greece, with seven performances of Rossini's Il Barbiere di Sevilla including the soloists such as Vladimir Chernow, baritone, Bruce Fowler, tenor, and other, as well as in Rialto Theater, Limassol, Cyprus, with full Company executing Pucinni's Madama Butterfly, both under batton of mr. Savic. The next successful appearance on the same spot in Cyprus took place in March 2007 presenting the cooperation between Beograd National Opera and Cyprus Opera Society on Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana / Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci conducted by the same artist.
In May 2002, on the Balkan popular “May Opera Evenings” in Skopje, Macedonia, mr Savic was invited to conduct the opening of the jubilee’s 30th edition – Verdi’s Rigoletto, with the ensemble of the Macedonian National Theater Opera. The result was the announcement of this performance to be the best on the Festival. Maestro returned to Macedonian Opera and Ballet in July 2015, closing the season with an excellent performance of Verdi's La Traviata (PopTomova, Sotirov, Baiocchi).
The cooperation with the Thessaloniki Opera resulted with two new productions of a highest rank – Beethoven’s Fidelio (Stage Director Spyros Evangelatos - Cheryl Studer, Mark Baker, Franz Joseph Kapellmannn, The Beograd National Opera Orchestra) and Puccini’s Tosca (Nelly Miricioiu, Paola Romano, Carlo Baricelli, The Romanian National Opera Orchestra), both in autumn 2002. At the same period on the head of the Chaikowski’s Eugen Onegin production of Opera National du Rhin, Strasbourg (Stage director Marco Arturo Marelli – Galina Badikovskaya, Andrei Dunaev, Vladimir Petrov, Fedor Kuznetsov, Nelly Boshkowa), mr Savic had a tremendous success in all of ten perfomances in eastern France.
In June 2003 Mr Savic conducted two performances of the production of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Sivilla on the opening of the prestigious “Opera-on-the-Square” Festival in Sofia, Bulgaria, including leading soloists, choir and orchestra of the Sofia National Opera – again with the tremendous success and acclamation from the audience and critics. In December, he made his italian debut conducting two international perfomances of Verdi’s La Traviata in teatro Ventidio Basso, Ascoli Piceno, again with the immence success and acclamation from all sides.
January 2004 the Beograd National Opera was invited to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the rebuilding the National Theater in Kefalonia, Greece, with two performances of Verdi’s Rigoletto under the batton of mr Savic and with the most prominent opera soloists.
The following engagement in the same company in Ascoli Piceno in December 2005 brought him the huge success with Puccini’s Madama Butterfy (Mitsuko Mori, Cesare Catani, Paolo Coni) which was performed in Osimo, Recanati and Ascoli Piceno. February 2006 mr Savic conducted Bellini’s Norma in National Opera Novi Sad (Katarina Jovanovic) with immense success, as well as in Sava Center Beograd.
His Italian engagement continued in 2006 with Concerto di Natale, music by Chaikowski and Di Giandomenico’s world premiere of Trittico di Natale (Ivana Speranza, Evelyn Smith) together with FORM – Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana and Coro Polifonico “David Brunori” in Tetaro di Tradizione in Jesi, Italy. It was the same spot where in December 2007 mr Savic concluded the lyric season with the Opera Galla, later repeated in City Theater of Fermo, dedicated to Beniamino Gigli (Dvoretskaya, Casciarri, Meoni, Shi) together with Symphony Orchestra “Gioachino Rossini” from Pesaro. In the same country but in the Theater “Francesco Stabile” in Potenza, mr Savic conducted two performances of Verdi’s Rigoletto in February 2007, this time with Orchestra Filarmonica Salernitana “Giuseppe Verdi” and Coro di Bitonto (Mima Brigante, Giorgio Casciarri, Giuseppe Altomare) adored by the full audience and critics. The same season in June, mr Savic made his Wien debut in prestigeous VolksOper, conducting three performances of Verdi's La Traviata (Briban, Ramos, Chernoh, Montazeri, Larson, Marof), having undisputed success with this fully sold out production. Again with exquisite Romanian soprano mme Roxana Briban, mr Savic made his debut in Bucharest National Opera in February 2008, having an undesputed success performing Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Further on the same year in March, during the tour of the National Theater Opera in Italy, mr Savic conducted two Opera Gallas in theaters of Rovigo and Faenza, performing with the best Serbian soloists and guests (Balistreri, Fracasso) and Orchestra of the National Theater. On prestigeous Gars am Kamp Opern-Air Festival 2008 this artist conducted the opening with the Verdi’s Aida spectacle (Fadayoumi, Kisleli, Nechayev, staging Drgac) highly marked in the vaste musical offer in the summer period in Austria. On the same spot mr Savic returned two seasons later with Verdi’s Traviata (Brumar, Beruggi, Nechayev, staging Drgac), again with the tremmendous success and full audience. The new success marked two performances of Bizet's Carmen in 2011 (Papoulkas, Marin, Kislali, Weinhappel, staging prof. Drgac) followed by Rigoletto (Kazani, Ortega, Altomare, staging prof. Drgac) in 2012 and again with performances of Rossini's Barbiere di Sevilla in 2013. His first performances in one Germany Opera house were also a great success, appearing in December in StadtTheater Koblenz with the Rhein Philharmonie, Opera Choir and an international soloists cast (Kruger, Polakovs, Ruggieri) on the “Best of...” Opera Gala.
In spring of 2009 mr Savic was the jury member of the XIV edition of the world famous Boris Christoff International Competition for Young Opera Singers in Sofia, as well as the president of the jury for the inaugural edition of the Blue Danube Opera Conducting Competition in Burgas, Bulgaria. Organized by the same artistic agency in this State Opera Company, mr Savic held the Young opera conductor's Masterclasses in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 in Russe State Opera, hosting the candidates from round the world, enabling them to perform the operas of Mozart, Bizet, Verdi, Rossini, Bellini and Puccini in public with success. During the August of 2009 mr Savic was engaged conducting performances of Rossini’s Barbiere di Sevilla on the Festival d’Arte Apuliae in region of Foggia, Italy, with the soloists from Italy and Turkey and the Chamber Orchestra of Apulia.
With the same ensemble maestroa performed in January 2012 for the New Year's concerts (soloists De Palma, Mi Seon Oh) in Foggia and Lucera. The same month and with the same great success he was preparing and leading the opening of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly on the Summer Music Festival in Burgas, Bulgaria, with the National Opera of Burgas and the soloists from Bulgaria and Macedonia.
March 2010 mr Savic led the outstanding performance of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in Teatro Dante, Firenza, Italy (Ishigami, Berrugi, Calamai) and immediately after, two preformances at The Opera Stars Festival in State Opera and Ballet Company of Siberia, Krasnoyarsk, Russia. The success included both titles, Puccini’s Tosca (Zelenskaya, Vishnyak, Effimov) and Rigoletto (Svyatkin, Zakirov, Baranova) in front of the packed audience and delighted company. The identical situation followed next 2011 year, with the same Festival and Puccini's titles La Boheme (Urusov, Levchuk, Baranova) and Madama Butterfly (Levchuk, Urusov, Efremov). His Portugal debut marked two excellent concerts in June 2010 with Orquestra do Algarve in Portimao and Loule, with Jan Krisztof Broja, pianist, as a soloist. The month of November of the same year, great impresion mr Savic left led to a successful MasterClass in Symphonic Repertory in Faro and continued with two concerts with the same Orchestra, with Otto Perreira as the violin soloist. Debut in National Opera of Timisoara, November 2011 with Traviata (Marcu, Balasescu, Estefan) again was the vaste success of maestro Savic.
During month of July 2012, maestro held the Symphonic Orchestra Masterclass in Saint Petersburg, Russia, hosting the candidates from round the world, collaborating with the prestigeous State Hermitage Orchestra. The same year in October maestro returned to Bucharest, Romania, for season's opening of National radio Chamber orchestra with Pavel Kohout (Czech Rpublic) as the organ soloist. Later in November, mr Savic made a very successfull recording session of Puccini's soprano arias, with mme Pia Brodnik as the soloist, with the prestigeous London Symphony Orchestra in Abbey Road Studios.
In April 2013 maestro Savic successfully appeared in prestigeous Sofia National Opera and Ballet, Bulgaria, performing Mascagni's Cavelleria Rusticana and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi (staging Kartaloff, Andreev, Georgiev). May the same year was the period when one recent idea became thruth - the National Theater in Nis again has the Music deprtment, established after more than 40 years, now opened with Strauss Flederemaus, performed by the Orchestra, Chorus and soloists of Academy of Arts in Nis under the batton of Mo Savic, in front of the delirious audience (staging I. Vukovic). In June, mr Savic closed the season with famous Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra in prestigeous "Bulgaria" hall, recorded by Bulgarian National Television (Kolundzija, Stamatovic soloists). To the same Hall with the same Orchestra Maestro returned in April 2015 conducting in the Concert season "Classical pearls and world premiers" (Koleva, Taner soloists). Again in August 2013, he conducted a main event on Summer festival of Opera and Operetta in Roselul Park with Romanian State Opera from Timisoara (Brumar, Ling, Mara). In November mr Savic conducted The Maria Callas Tribute Opera Galla in "Elena Teodorini" Lyric Theater with young European soloists in Craiova, Romania, during the 40th edition of the Music Festival bearing the same name. This was followed by the Jury membership of the 1st International Vocal Competition and appearance for the final stage with the Orchestra in the same Theater.
The year of 2014 begun with an outstanding debut with Cyprus State Symphony Orchestra and January concerts in Pafos and Nicosia, with music of Copland, Lutoslawski, Vorisek and Sophia Serghi. Already in March, maestro Savic had a great success conducting performances of Rossini's Barber of Seville and Puccini's Madama Butterfly in Ural Opera nd Ballet Theater in Ekaterinburg, Russia, one of the four Federal Music Theaters in Russia (Bolshoi, Mariinsky, Novosibirsk and Ekaterinburg). The return to this prestigeous theater in June 2015 with the excellent performance of Verdi's Traviata (Savicic-Sekulic, Plazinic, Mironov) was the part of the collaboration protocol with National Theater Beograd, Serbia. The return to Craiova, Romania and "Elena Teodorini" Lyric Theater, was marked with Verdi's Otelo (Budoiu, Vari, Mijailovic) as the opening of Shakespeare Festival on May the 1st 2014. Just a week later, maestro appeared as the guest conductor in National Romanian Opera in Timisoara, successfully performing Verdi's Rigoletto (Petrean, Balasescu, Vezentan). In August, mr Savic was invited to Potenza, Italy, to open a new Summer Festival with Donizetti's "Elisir d'Amore", with young cast, Orchestra Sinfonica Lucana and Coro "Euro Mediterraneo" with a brilliant performance. Back in Timisoara, Romania, Maestro opened a new season with Traviata (Marcu, Horea, Pataca) in September 2014.
The great Asian debut of Maestro Savic was presented by three magficent performances of Puccini's Tosca (Dal Pierro, Gramegna, Fabbian) in Busan Kultural Center, Republic of Korea, in organization of SolOpera, December 2014. Again in Romania, the same month followed an exquisite performance with the National Theater Beograd Opera soloists and Orchestra on "Craiova Musicale" 41st edition of the Festival. In May 2015 mr Savic sussessfully debuted with Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana in Teatro Polyteama Palermo, Italy (Alessio Pianelli, soloist). In the same state, now in prestigeous Teatro Ariston in Sanremo, in August Maestro conducted Rossini's Barbiere di Sevilla (Bakanova, Mirabelli, Nani), marked in the media as the huge triumph. Later in September, mr Savic made his outstanding debut in Albania, conducting the National Opera and Ballet Symphony Orchestra in Tirana (Voshtina, Franzetti, Ferxha soloists).
Among the others, some of the names with which mr Savic cooperated are Mikis Theodorakis, Costas Paschalis, Ludovic Spiess, Maya Plisetskaya, Vladimir Vasilev, Jiri Menzel, Bonaldo Giaiotti, Maria Slatinaru – Nistor, Corneliu Murgu, Alexandrina Milcheva, Peter Dvorsky, Ljubov Kazarnovskaya and other.
D. Savic made recordings for Radio and TV in many countries as well as several CD’s for the PGP production of RTV Belgrade, Romanian National Radiodifusion, Bulgarian National RTV, Greek National RTV a.o. For his artistic achievments he has received a number of recognitions and awards.
Mr Savic is fluently speaking English, French, Italian, German and Russian language.